Manufacturing & Operations Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Manufacturing & Operations Management - Essay Example Simultaneously, spare parts are manufactured in the batch and stored in the warehouse until required by the final assembly for product 1 and 2. The finished product is stored in the warehouse until delivered to the customer. This report will identify the strategy (i.e. MRP, JIP and Hybrid) to be employed by Promanager PLC to resolve the issue. Also, in the end, the report will provide detailed set of recommendations to improve the overall manufacturing performance of Promanager PLC. Figure 1: Current Manufacturing Process of Promanager PLC Manufacturing Planning and Control Strategy Recommendation and Rationale The manufacturing forms the most significant aspect for a manufacturing company and it forms as its competitive advantage or a reason for failure. Therefore, a strong and effective management tool is required to achieve the required success rate. However, in order to recommend a strategy, the first step is to identify the problems that the existing system is facing. Promanager PLC existing production mechanism is facing the following significant problems: (1) The Master production schedule makes poor forecasts for individual order specifications. (2) The throughput time of the product is more than the standard 3 weeks time. (3) Response time to customers should be 1 week. (4) Discrepancies in data of inventory management system and inventory of materials. (5) High defect rate for finished products. (6) High level of Raw Material, Work-in-Progress and Finished Goods stock due to imbalance between supply and demand time and materials. There are three types of manufacturing planning and control strategies, namely: material requirements planning (MRP), just-in-time (JIT) and hybrid. Benton and Shin (1997) argued that MRP and JIT directs the significant aspects of a material flow in terms of its planning and controlling. Zhao, Zhou, Luo and Dai (2011) and Mahapatra, Pal and Narasimhan (2011) postulated that JIT reduces set up time, improves the flow of goods from warehouse to the shelves, makes efficient use of multi-skilled employees, synchronizes the production schedule and hours worked, improves relationships with supplier and throughout the day supplies comes on a regular basis. The JIT system can be implemented in seven steps that can be customized according to the needs of the production cycle. These are: (1) Design flow process, (2) Total Quality System, (3) Stabilize Schedule, (4) Kanbul Pull System, (5) Work with Vendors, (6) Further reduce inventory in other areas, and (7) Improve product design. On the other hand, MRP is a special mechanism to plan as well as control the production processes. The primary objectives of introducing MRP in a production process is to guarantee availability of materials fro the production and at the same time ensure that finished products are ready to be delivered to customers. Furthermore, it ensures the minimum possible levels of inventory (i.e. material and finished products) to stay in the sto res. MRP also helps in planning the activities of manufacturing, purchasing and manages the delivery schedules. In the case of Promanager PLC, JIT or MRP can not resolve the problems that it is facing independently. As, JITwill help to resolve the problem numbers 2, 4 and 5. Whereas, MRP is a unique management tool that only focuses on the manufacturing material, purchasing and delivery activities. Therefore, it can resolve the proble